Reading between the lines and looking from the situation from one end of the med, I would suggest that the Griffin in Cyprus is far from a success. It no doubt will be, but it will take a couple of years and no doubt a shed load of cash to sort it out, and we only have the aircraft for 5 years anyway.
as far as I understand you cannot get 2 ejectee casualties on board in stretchers and then work on them for 1/2 hour that would be required if collecting someone from the furthest point that the fast jets operate. Surely that makes the aircraft either:
a: unsuitable for SAR as the RAF practise it.
b: unsuitable for purpose at the moment and therefore has no business holding aSAR standby until these issues have been resolved.
I guess, like the Sea King Force, once you start living with it then you will be stuck with it for many years to come.
Fortunately for the SARF the MRT stretchers will not fit in the aircraft anyway, so it will be F*** all use over here.